The full A to H table for 2026/27. Band D is £2,047.11 in Lambeth and £1,020.35 in Wandsworth, and SW4 postcodes fall on both sides of the boundary.
Clapham sits on a boundary, and the boundary is worth about a thousand pounds a year.
A band D home billed by Lambeth pays £2,047.11 in 2026/27. A band D home billed by Wandsworth pays £1,020.35. That is a gap of £1,026.76 on the same band, and the SW4 postcode district straddles both councils, so two houses can share a postcode district and get bills that differ by half.
Both figures come from the councils’ own published tables, read on 30 August 2026. Below is the full band A to H table for Lambeth, what the bill is actually made of, and how to check which side of the line you are on.
Lambeth bands A to H, 2026/27
| Band | 1991 value | 2025/26 | 2026/27 | Rise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | up to £40,000 | £1,302.63 | £1,364.74 | £62.11 |
| B | £40,001 to £52,000 | £1,519.74 | £1,592.19 | £72.45 |
| C | £52,001 to £68,000 | £1,736.84 | £1,819.66 | £82.82 |
| D | £68,001 to £88,000 | £1,953.95 | £2,047.11 | £93.16 |
| E | £88,001 to £120,000 | £2,388.16 | £2,502.03 | £113.87 |
| F | £120,001 to £160,000 | £2,822.38 | £2,956.93 | £134.55 |
| G | £160,001 to £320,000 | £3,256.58 | £3,411.85 | £155.27 |
| H | over £320,000 | £3,907.90 | £4,094.22 | £186.32 |
Source: Lambeth Council Tax bands and rates. The band D bill rose 4.77% overall.
What the bill is made of
Two organisations charge you, and only one of them is Lambeth.
Lambeth’s own share of a band D bill is £1,536.60, up 4.99% from £1,463.57. The council took the maximum available without a referendum: 2.99% for general services plus the 2% adult social care precept recommended by government. Council leader Claire Holland put that at “around £1.40 per week on the average Band D property” in her letter to residents.
The Greater London Authority takes the other £510.51, up £20.13. Lambeth’s own GLA leaflet shows exactly where the increase went, and it is not spread evenly:
| GLA element | 2025/26 | Change | 2026/27 |
|---|---|---|---|
| MOPAC, the Metropolitan Police | £319.13 | +£15.00 | £334.13 |
| London Fire Brigade | £71.72 | +£5.13 | £76.85 |
| Transport for London | £77.09 | no change | £77.09 |
| GLA itself | £22.44 | no change | £22.44 |
| Total | £490.38 | +£20.13 | £510.51 |
Every penny of the GLA rise went to policing and the fire brigade. TfL’s share and City Hall’s own share were both frozen.
The Wandsworth line
Wandsworth froze its general council tax for 2026/27 and applied only the 2% adult social care increase. With the GLA rise added, the total Wandsworth bill went up 3.1%. Lambeth’s went up 4.77%. The two are moving apart, not together.
| Band | Lambeth | Wandsworth | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | £1,364.74 | £680.23 | £684.51 |
| B | £1,592.19 | £793.60 | £798.59 |
| C | £1,819.66 | £906.98 | £912.68 |
| D | £2,047.11 | £1,020.35 | £1,026.76 |
| E | £2,502.03 | £1,247.10 | £1,254.93 |
| F | £2,956.93 | £1,473.84 | £1,483.09 |
| G | £3,411.85 | £1,700.58 | £1,711.27 |
| H | £4,094.22 | £2,040.70 | £2,053.52 |
Wandsworth figures from Wandsworth Council Tax bands and charges. Both councils charge the identical £510.51 GLA precept, so the entire difference is the borough element: £1,536.60 in Lambeth against £509.84 in Wandsworth.
Where does the line run? Checking postcodes against the postcodes.io lookup of ONS boundary data:
- Lambeth: Clapham High Street, Clapham Old Town, Clapham Park, the Abbeville area, and Clapham Common’s north and south sides. Wards named Clapham Town, Clapham Common & Abbeville and Clapham Park.
- Wandsworth: Clapham Junction, Northcote Road and the streets “between the commons”, Battersea, and Balham. These carry SW11 and SW12 postcodes.
- SW4 is split. Most of SW4 is Lambeth, but part of it falls in Wandsworth’s Balham ward. SW2 and SW9 are wholly Lambeth. SW11 is wholly Wandsworth.
The practical consequence is that “I live in Clapham” tells you nothing about your bill. Check the postcode, not the place name.
How Lambeth compares across London
The government’s council tax levels release for 2026 to 2027 puts Lambeth’s borough element at £1,536.60, which is 24th of the 33 London authorities. Nine London boroughs charge less. Wandsworth is bottom of all 33.
Set against the wider picture, the total Lambeth band D bill of £2,047.11 sits below the London average of £2,068.47 and well below the England average of £2,391.52, both from table 7 of the same release. Lambeth’s leader describes the borough’s council tax as “one of the lowest in the entire country”, which holds against the England average but places it in the middle of the London pack rather than near the bottom.
One caveat on that government table. It records Wandsworth at £517.70 rather than £509.84, because the figure is an average across the borough that folds in the Wimbledon and Putney Commons Conservators levy. That levy is £41.38 at band D and is only charged in the Putney and Wimbledon area. It has nothing to do with Clapham, so the Wandsworth figures above use the council’s own published charge.
Checking and challenging your band
Bands are set by the Valuation Office Agency, not by Lambeth, and they are based on what the property would have sold for on 1 April 1991. A flat converted last year is still banded on a 1991 estimate.
- Look up any address on the VOA band search.
- To challenge the band itself, go to the VOA. You must keep paying the current bill until a decision is made.
- To challenge the amount rather than the band, for instance because you think Lambeth has made a mistake or the property should be exempt, email counciltax@lambeth.gov.uk with “APPEAL” in the subject line. Lambeth undertakes to reply within two months, after which the Valuation Tribunal Service takes over.
If you qualify for a disability band reduction, Lambeth bills you as though the property were one band lower. A band D home is charged at band C. Band A homes get the same cash reduction that a band B home would receive (Lambeth explanatory notes).
Discounts, and the 73.5% ceiling
Single person discount is 25%, and it takes a band D bill down to £1,535.33. The bill assumes two adults, but a long list of people are not counted at all: full-time students, student nurses, apprentices, people who are severely mentally impaired, care workers on low pay, 18 and 19-year-olds still at or just out of school, people in prison, monks and nuns, and several more. A household of one adult and three students still gets the single person discount.
Care leavers are exempt from council tax in Lambeth until they turn 25, arranged through a support worker rather than by application. Lambeth foster carers can claim a rebate.
Council Tax Support is the one to read carefully, because Lambeth changed it on 1 April 2026 to a banded scheme for everyone of working age. Pensioners can still get up to 100% off. Working-age households cannot:
| Weekly net earnings, household with no children | Amount off your bill |
|---|---|
| £0 | 73.5% |
| £0.01 to £100 | 55% |
| £100.01 to £200 | 45% |
| £200.01 to £300 | 30% |
| £300.01 to £380 | 15% |
| £380.01 or more | 0% |
The thresholds move up by £30 a week for each child in the household, so a family with two children keeps the 55% band up to £160 a week and the 45% band up to £260 (Lambeth). Welfare benefits are not counted as earnings for this calculation.
The number to notice is 73.5%. A working-age Lambeth household with no earnings at all still pays 26.5% of the bill, which on a band D property is £542.48 a year. You also need savings below £10,000, or £16,000 if you are a pensioner.
Empty properties and second homes
There is no discount for an empty property in Lambeth, and there are premiums on top of the full charge:
- Empty more than 1 year: 100% premium, so twice the normal bill
- Empty more than 5 years: 200% premium, three times the normal bill
- Empty more than 10 years: 300% premium, four times the normal bill
- Second homes, meaning furnished properties with no resident, including short lets and serviced apartments: 100% premium since 1 April 2025
At band D that puts a home empty for over ten years on £8,188.44 a year. Exceptions run for up to 12 months where a property is genuinely being marketed for sale or let, is undergoing major repairs, or is going through probate (Lambeth).
More Clapham local information
- Clapham bin collection days and the 2026/27 calendar
- Parking in Clapham: permits, tariffs and free bays
- Clapham roadworks and travel
- Clapham house prices
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